We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brian Richards. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brian below.

Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

We believe that everyone deserves a healthful, fulfilling life, and that nature’s wisdom can show us the path to achieving it. SaunaSpace harnesses the power of light so people can transcend their limitations and reconnect with themselves–body, mind, and spirit.

Our mission manifested during my personal health journey over a decade ago. I struggled with insomnia, lethargy, irascibility and acne, but I wasn’t interested in taking drugs; I wanted to do something that would address the root causes of my symptoms, and when my mother, an integrative medical doctor, recommended detoxing via sauna. I was intrigued and began to do my own research. During my research into the awesome benefits of frequent sauna use for almost every health issue out there, I came across Dr. Kellog’s book “Light Therapeutics,” published in 1910. He describes testing his “electric light bath,” a sauna powered by incandescent light bulbs, on over 50,000 chronically ill patients and his patient outcomes were incredible.

So I built my own version of the electric light bath and the rest is history! My insomnia issues disappeared after two sessions and then over about six months of frequent use, I realized what a profound transformation I had experienced. My acne was gone, and my energy levels increased dramatically. I noticed improvement in my sleep quality, mood, brain function, focus-levels and patience. I realized that I was dealing with brain fog that I wasn’t able to notice in my previous toxic state. Overall, I felt a deep sense of positivity, happiness and amazement. All this resulted from a fun, simple ritual of being: just sitting in my light bath.

I said to myself, I want to help others look and feel and be their best version of themselves, and I would do so by making the most amazing electric light bath ever. Every call and review we get from customers relating how powerfully our products serve and support their health transformations is so gratifying, and the feedback reinforces how important our mission is. We empower people to be their best!

Brian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The research in long-term large human population studies clearly indicates that frequent sauna use extends your health span (i.e. reduces all-cause mortality risk) and reduces risk of dementia. Red to near infrared light therapy, that is the use of red and near infrared light to heal damaged tissue and optimize function of healthy tissue, is being shown to help with all sorts of biological dysfunction. It makes sense because we are beings of light, having evolved under sunlight, and most of the power we absorb from the sun, about 70%, is near infrared. The high frequency portion near infrared stimulates light therapy responses, and the rest of near infrared radiantly heats our tissues.

So at SaunaSpace, we deliver light and sauna heat therapy together by replicating how the incandescing sun’s red and near infrared wavelengths stimulate the body. Our special incandescent bulb, developed after years of research and development, features a filament tuned to run at a higher Kelvin temperature. This shift in the spectrum increases the emission of near-infrared and red wavelengths compared to a standard heat lamp, and we call this the FireLight Spectrum.

The key distinction lies in the fact that incandescent bulbs differ from LED light therapy. It’s not solely because we utilize near-infrared. Some LED panels also use near-infrared wavelengths. What sets us apart is that we’re emulating the light of nature and the sun, providing full-spectrum light similar to the sun but without the harmful ultraviolet and blue wavelengths.

Compared to other saunas, SaunaSpace’s FireLight spectrum warms you from the inside out, allowing your body to achieve optimal results at lower temperatures and activating the body’s natural ability to detox, repair, and perform at the cellular level. It’s a more comfortable and invigorating experience, much like the glow of sitting near a bonfire.

We’ve cut out all of the elements that get in the way of an optimal healing experience: Our products are free of harmful UV light, fatiguing blue light, flickering LEDs, and stressful EMFs so everyone can experience a deeper sense of relief.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I began SaunaSpace as a side gig with rental real estate as my main focus, so my financial and time investment was initially very conservative. I started with $200 and built my own bricolage concept sauna first unit and sold it. You had to email me on my mother’s website (she had a medical practice in Columbia, MO) and I invoiced you via Paypal. A few months and 10-15 saunas later, I got a more well known doctor’s endorsement and decided it was time to take this electric light bath concept seriously. So I created the SaunaSpace logo, incorporated it, and created an ugly website and signed up to have a credit card gateway.

Within six months, I had sold over $50,000 and reached a financial ceiling. At this point I had a cabinet company making my cnc-ed wood parts and an upholsterer sewing my cloth sauna tent covers, and I was single handedly doing the rest of the fixture assembly, small parts, testing and kitting, all in the spare room of my house. I was answering all the sales calls and wearing every hat. Reading Michael Gerber’s E-Myth book gave me a cold slap to the face. I realized that I needed capital to develop product designs and business and manufacturing infrastructure to in-source 100% of the manufacturing process to create my dream version of the product in concept at scale…and employees to help!

I created a business plan, two years of financial projections with help from my accountant, and small scale physical models of product part designs that I envisioned I would make but would need expensive cnc machines and capital to bring them to market. I put on my ill-fitting suit, the only one I owned, and walked into Bank of Missouri with my accountant and pitched my loan request to their senior loan officer. It went well, and after another two in-person presentations to their loan team, I was approved. Because I had already sold $50,000, the bank considered SaunaSpace an existing business and based on having shipped a few units to customers in England, I was approved for a Small Business Export (SBE) loan.

So, instead of planning everything upfront and securing capital to go to market at scale, I took a conservative approach to financing the business. I made sure almost every unit I created was sold and profits reinvested in incorporating infrastructure and design improvements. Let the concept prove its market value and in doing so, I was able to self-finance without requiring outside investment and loss of equity and control of the brand development. The novel product and novel production development process were allowed time and space to develop methodically based on customer feedback and our in–house innovation. We spent 4 years developing our custom-made, superiorly therapeutic light bulb. I didn’t pay myself for the first 3 years of business. I eventually got another two SBE loans and almost went bankrupt about three times, but our dogged determination to design and innovate our way and stay true to our mission has always led to breakthroughs at critical junctures.

A decade later, I realized that I could have scaled much faster with angel investment, but the product and business development would have been much more profit focused. I’m so happy and proud to continue to maintain our mission to empower people to be well using our unique technology and product experience approach.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

SaunaSpace’s core values are those which I’ve always held fast to from the 1st sauna build: We do what’s right.
We are intentional.
We reflect and connect.
We illuminate solutions.

How does one train on values, culture and intentionality? I struggled with this for years, trying to get my employees to care and embody the passion of the founder! Was this even possible? SaunaSpace is vertically integrated, so we design, manufacture, market, sell, fulfill and service our products! We essentially are 2 companies in one: our design and manufacturing in one facility and our customer service, marketing and fulfillment in another.

I tried out various management systems like spiral dynamics, teal culture, Holacracy, David Allen’s Getting Things Done and other approaches too. All were helpful tools and instructive in personnel in systems and corporate philosophy, but none holistically addressed our scaling challenges in accountability, systems, and particularly, culture and values.

Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) has been a game changer for us. Corporate culture and corporate health have always been so important to me. Using the EOS framework and ninety.io’s EOS platform, I’ve finally found means of scaling the company systems, roles and cultural values. Every system, meeting and role at our organization is imbued with our company’s mission and core values. Far from being placeholders, our core values drive who we hire, how we operate in our roles, how we communicate, and are an integral part of our performance evaluation.

Though competitive compensation is important, maintaining consistently high morale has much more to do with having our team members understand, believe in and be held equally and fully accountable to our core values in all aspects of our organization. When the team understands and loves the mission and embodies the core values, the team is self-motivated, self-managed and morale naturally stays high.

I never really viewed SaunaSpace as work; it’s always been just this fun and challenging game of doing what I love. SaunaSpace is less a “business” and more an extension of me, with her own distinct consciousness. With everyone in energetic alignment, there’s a concert of purpose and action that elevates the corporate consciousness. Together, we maximize the transformative impact our products have on each and every customer’s lives!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sauna.space
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saunaspace/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/saunaspace